The Sharlands

One of the most enduring markers of the Devonshire marble industry was the use of the celebrated Ogwell Featherstone. It was first discovered and exploited around 1830 by John Sharland, the first of three generations of ‘staturaries’ or sculptors who had a marble works at Madrepore Place in Torquay. ‘Madreporia’ was a little-used term for a zoological group of coral-like organisms and the term, madrepore worker (in common use in Torbay) was an artisan who collected and polished fossil madrepores.

Torquay Museum

The site of the Sharlands’ marble works recorded in the street name.

According to Octavian Blewitt’s book ‘The Panorama of Torquay’ written in 1832, Ogwell Featherstone was a ‘splendid mass of stone entirely composed of a congeries of many beautiful varieties of aggregated and branching madrepores’. The Sharlands used the stone to make vases, tablets and other kinds of ornamental works.

Torquay Museum

A turned Featherstone tazza (shallow ornamental cup), most likely made by the Sharlands.

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